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Saturday, April 05, 2014

I don't often talk about work. Not the work that goes into this blog but the work that sometimes keeps away from it for long period of time. It's no lack of recipes cooked and photographed though. I photograph cookbooks. That's my full time job and one I absolutely love. Everyday I photograph recipes that you will hopefully cook and enjoy. Nothing gives me greater joy.

Everyday I get the chance to give a visual voice to words on a manuscript. As Senior Photographer for Oxmoor House publishing, I have the privilege of shooting for brands such as Southern Living, Cooking Light, Sunset, independent authors and big companies such as Lodge Cast Iron. I work closely with a creative team of editors and designers and spend my days on set with super talented food stylists and prop stylists. Our passion for food and photography unites us everyday over the same goal, to give beauty and visuals beyond the words on a page that you will read later and enjoy in your kitchen.

That's the best I can describe my full time job. And I love it. When I moved to Birmingham to come work at Oxmoor House, I had no idea of what was ahead of me, the connections I would make with like minded people in the industry and all the beautiful cookbooks I would get the chance to work on with our amazing food and prop stylists. We are a tight unit taking our responsibilities to authors and recipes incredibly seriously. With their talents and our ideas, I am able to dive in my own photography freely and geek out, take risks and have a load of fun at the same time.

This past Fall, we worked on an amazing book for Lodge Cast Iron, the well known original American cast iron cookware. And what a blast we had. It's not easy to shoot things in black skillets let me tell you... but we were given complete creative freedom with just the directive of "make it beautiful, make it Lodge". This iconic brand deserved gorgeous imagery blending its natural rustic look and feel with modern styling and photography techniques and compositions.

I loved how we all came together and worked our butts off to make it happen. I was able to work with my dear fried, Tami Hardeman, professional food stylist and the voice behind Running With Tweezers, who came to spearhead the book with our food stylists. We were all gelling for sure. Some of my favorite shots if my career so far grace the page of this book. I am super proud of the work accomplished by all involved and I hear the company is absolutely thrilled about the results too. Woohoo!

The book, entitled Lodge Cast Iron Nation, came out a couple of weeks ago and is collection of tried and true recipes, family favorites and sophisticated yet attainable restaurant recipes. Some were ones I cook at home regularly such as clafouti or chowder while others were completely new and surprising (and delicious) such as chicken cooked over hay.

I am a bit late coming to share it with you (I will post about my trip and workshops to New Zealand soon!) but I am doing so today with a couple of presents...

To celebrate its release, Lodge Cast Iron is giving away a copy of the book as well as a 12-inch cast iron grill pan(I have it and love it to pieces).

To enter: leave a comment on this post between today, Saturday April 5th and Tuesday April 8th (midnight), one entry per person, no anonymous comment please. Super easy... The winner will be drawn at random and announced promptly after. Good luck!

I am leaving you with two tasty recipes that I enjoyed photographing for the book. And eating, let's face it, we ate really really well on set!!

APPLE-PECAN CLAFOUTIS

Serves 6 to 8

For Tanya Holland,
cookbook author and chef-owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, California,
this dish is a celebration of her cooking experiences. “My paternal grandmother
in Virginia always fried apples in a cast iron skillet. My maternal grandmother
in Louisiana always toasted pecans in her pan. Cherry clafoutis was one of the
first ‘exotic’ desserts I made when I was taking cooking classes at Peter
Kump’s New York Cooking School...at 23, I felt so sophisticated just being able
to pronounce it!”

Ingredients

¾ cup pecan pieces

1 ½ pounds firm, semisweet apples, like Fuji or Pink Lady

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon apple brandy

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Powdered sugar (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Pulse the pecans in a food
processor until finely chopped; be careful not to process into a powder. Set
aside.

2. Peel and core the apples. Slice the apples in half, then
cut each half into 1⁄8-inch-thick half moons.

3. Heat a Lodge 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat;
add the butter. When melted, swirl to coat the bottom. Add the apples, 1⁄4 cup
of the sugar, and the cinnamon, and cook until the apples soften, about 10
minutes, stirring a few times.

4. While the apples cook, whisk the eggs, remaining 3⁄4 cup
sugar, the milk, brandy, and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Whisk in the
pecans and salt, then slowly whisk in the flour to avoid lumps. Pour the batter
over the apples in the pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 375°, then reduce the oven
temperature to 350°, and cook until the clafoutis is nicely puffed up and
browned on top, another 35 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired. Serve
immediately.

From Lodge Cast Iron
Nation: Great American Cooking from Coast to Coast/ Oxmoor House

No, not Down East
Maine, but North Carolina. All along our Outer Banks and Southern Outer Banks
is home to this style of chowder. Somewhat akin to the chowders of Rhode
Island, this style is more about the clams than the thick, cream- based
chowders of New England. “It’s a type of chowder,” says Fred Thompson, a
cookbook author, resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, and publisher of Edible
Piedmont, “that you’ll find at a local’s home.”

Ingredients

1⁄4 pound salt pork or slab bacon, sliced 1⁄4 inch thick

1⁄2 cup chopped onion

4 cups water, or half water and half clam juice

1 teaspoon salt

1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 quart coarsely chopped chowder clams

4 cups diced (1⁄2-inch) potatoes

2 dozen small clams in the shell, scrubbed (farm-raised from
North Carolina are perfect) Milk, half-and-half, or light or heavy cream, as
desired

Sliced white bread (optional)

Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley for garnish

Oyster crackers

1. Cook the salt pork in a Lodge 5-quart cast iron Dutch
oven over medium heat until crisp. Remove the pork, and discard, reserving the
rendered fat in the pot. Add the onion, and cook until tender (but don’t let it
color), about 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Pour in the water, then add the
salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Add the chowder clams, reduce the heat to
low, and slowly simmer, uncovered, until the clams are tender, about 1 hour.

2. Add the potatoes, increase the heat to medium, and simmer
until they are tender, about 20 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, add the
clams in the shell, and cover the pot. Add the milk, if using, right before
serving, but give it enough time to warm (a couple of minutes usually works).

3. If you like, set a slice of bread in the bottom of each
large shallow serving bowl, then ladle in the chowder, making sure to get a
couple of the shell clams. Sprinkle with parsley, and serve with oyster
crackers.

Serves 10 to 12

Sidebar: How Fred Makes Chowder

1) The key to a good chowder is timing. Wait until the
potatoes are fork tender before adding the clams in the shell, because they
don't take long to cook.

2. Be careful not to overcook the clams. They will be
completely cooked when their shells open wide (about 10 minutes). Discard
shells that remain closed.

3. To thicken this chowder like the locals do, place a slice
of white bread in the bottom of each serving bowl before ladling the chowder
into the bowl.

From Lodge Cast Iron
Nation: Great American Cooking from Coast to Coast by Lodge Manufacturing Company/ Oxmoor House

I love this book so much that I already own it... but I know someone whom I would be happy to gift it to! ;) I still want a few of these images up in my kitchen. I LOVE what I have made so far, and can't wait to try more. Num num num

Love my old Cast Iron pans...made usable from: 'I believe I can fry'. http://www.ibelieveicanfry.com/2010/12/reconditioning-re-seasoning-cast-iron.html I just can't wait to try out some of these recipes...made more beautiful by your photographs. Here's to your continued delicious success! In good food, Donna

I am so excited to see this! I don't know anything about Lodge cast iron so I want to learn more :) I Have 5 cast iron skillets, in varying size and age, that I cook with frequently. Here in the Traverse City area,there is a local catering company (Epicure Catering) that has a "Leelanau Berry Cake, " that is basically a clafoutis that my family loves me to recreate in the pans.Thank you for your gorgeous work and giveawy.

You did an incredible job with the photography and I was so honored to be a part of the cookbook, representing the Gulf Coast of Florida with Chefs Irv Miller (Pensacola) and David Cunningham ( 30A South Walton).- Best, Susan

Very strong, impactful images, Helene. Beautifully done. And we can "hear" the passion in your voice. Congratulations!! I love cooking with cast iron and certainly would LOVE to add your new book to my collection. :-)

My husband was a chef and will only cook in the big cast iron pan that is always on our stove.Your blog is my very first I have read and it is amazing. I love it!I could see spending many hours discovering beautiful ideas here! Thank you for the great recipes.Philomena

I have never have a cast iron skillet. To me they are so American, so culturally unknown to me, I am a little scared of them, I don't now how they should be used. This book seems like the perfect solution and the photographs are sublime. After 13 years living in the US it's about time I mastered this calssic piece of American cookware!

Ahh, no wonder the photos are so gorgeous!!! I'm halfway thru the cookbook and loving it. You really made the recipes come alive. Now, I'm hoping to win the grilling pan and have another copy of the cookbook to give as a gift :-)

Being a 'Foodie' I was firstly drawn to your blog because of the recipes. BUT, being inspired by your photographs, I then undertook a food photography course, I now find myself with an new passion. Here's were you get the 'pay back'-- that passion for food photography and blogging has now been passed on to my students. Brilliant. Chef Pam

These photos are absolutely stunning. I want to eat all the things. And I really could use another cast iron skillet, as once my old nonstick set is wearing out, I plan to replace them with cast iron and stainless.

Memories of Girl Scout Camp come back to me with discussions of Cast Iron Pans! However, I have one that is in use at least every week if not more!As always, your photos are so inspiring, Hélène. Bon travail!

You make everything look so delicious and gorgeous. I have a couple of cast iron skillets and a pancake pan and love, love, love them. One I got from my mother in law so it is old. I'd love for this cookbook to become a part of my collection.

It would be lovely to win the cookbook. I have cooked some in a cast iron skillet, but confess that I don't use it enough and just reading about (and seeing your beautiful photos of )all these recipes makes me want to get it out again and learn!

We bought our first cast iron pan a few weeks ago after years of being scared of it! Seems silly now now that I see how lovely it really is!! :) Same thing happened with a pressure cooker...maybe someday I will learn!! :)

Well i dont comment too often indeed, the recipes are amazing and the pictures gives you the push to make itlook good in a plate! Now this book looks amazing and i do miss the cast iron i used to have before a moved away... Let chance work a bit of magic :D